sandy reminded us of a very stark reality. we can either invest in protections now or we will pay more later. i would like to spend a little time talking about the mitigation issue in two areas. fema and localities and flexibility to mitigate against future disasters of we can save taxpayer money. the electric grid. on long island, public power agency long island power authority suffered unprecedented damage to an unprotected system. 4,500 polls, 400 miles of electrical line, 50 of one under 85 substations victims. 1 million people were without power. and for over two weeks the country watched as an inept and unprepared utilities struggled to even communicate let alone restore power. did not do enough target the system or flood prove substations . that type of system that allows you to use computers and sensors to respond to adages, learn where the damages and communicate with customers. the lack of investment and foresight is now costing us big-time. it does not give me pleasure to report to this committee that we will be sub